Save Your Soul (Body & Soul #2) (7 page)

“What?” I gasped, certain I hadn’t heard him right.

He pulled over to the side of the road, put the car in park and turned to face me. Pulling my hands into his own, he looked deeply into my eyes. “Marry me,” he repeated.

“I guess I must be really good at blow jobs,” I joked.

“You are,” he agreed, his lip tilting up in a grin. “But that’s not why I’m asking. The last name change may help me to hide you.”

My heart dropped. This was definitely the least romantic proposal in the history of the world. I crossed my arms over my chest, a protective shield I suddenly felt I needed for this conversation. “Don’t you think marriage is a little excessive?”

Brecken reached down and rested his hand on my belly. “You’re going to become my wife one way or another.”

“How romantic,” I sighed, rolling my eyes.

“And you could be pregnant with my baby already.”

“H
oly crap,” she breathed out, her already pale complexion turning another shade lighter. Her hand moved over mine, holding it in place while she stared at me in amazement. “I might be pregnant.”

“That’s what happens when you have sex without a condom.”

“We had sex without a condom.”

She sounded like a parrot repeating after me, and it was fucking adorable. “We did.”

It was much less adorable when she punched my arm—until she shook her fist out while practically hopping in her seat. “Crap, crap, crap,” she chanted. “You’re built like a brick wall.”

I pulled her hand towards my lips and kissed it gently. “And you’re avoiding the question.”

My precious girl demonstrated her bravery once again by taking a deep breath and blurting out her concern. “If I’m not pregnant, would you still want me to be your wife? Because if so, I think we should wait, even if it means it will be easier for the bad guys to track me down. I might not approve of how my dad earns his money, but even though I haven’t talked to my parents in six months, I still want a marriage like theirs. I want my husband and me to be a team.”

“I want the same thing.” I knew I was fucking this up, not explaining it to Hadley well. Even worse, I was making her think I wasn’t serious about my proposal. Digging deep, I tried to find the words to convince her to say yes. “For you to be my teammate, I mean. I didn’t have the best example of marriage with my parents, but one thing the military taught me was the importance of knowing you can rely on your team. I know it’s insane for me to know this already, hell I gave Morgan a hard time for moving Angelica into his house the day he met her and here I am trying to convince you to marry me two days after you met me.”

My chuckle held no humor because I had too much riding on this to find it funny. I saw something working behind her pretty green eyes as I spoke, so I pushed forward and hoped for the best. “Baby or no baby, I want you to be my wife. I should never have presented this to you as a way to better protect you. That was me being an ass and using the situation to my advantage to try to avoid admitting to the real reason I’m asking you. And that reason is I want my ring on your finger, my last name after your first and you living in my home. Not just for the short term, either. I want it forever.”

Tears were streaming down her face in earnest, and they worried the fuck out of me. I hoped like hell they weren’t a sign of me fucking this up even more. When a huge grin split her face, my lungs seized. And then she gave me the answer I’d been waiting for.

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Wrapping my hands under her armpits, I lifted her over the console and onto my lap. I captured her lips with mine and sealed our promises to each other with a kiss. When I finally lifted my head, her cheeks were dry and her eyes were dazed.

“Tomorrow.”

She smiled up at me. “Tomorrow what?”

“I want you to marry me tomorrow in Kentucky.”

“What about blood tests, waiting periods and a marriage license?”

I held up my hand and ticked off each point with a finger. “Kentucky doesn’t require a blood test, has no waiting period and we can get a marriage license in the morning by applying at a County Clerk’s office.”

She looked to the side for a moment, her eyebrows raised in surprise, before meeting my gaze again. “You sound awfully familiar with how weddings work in Kentucky.”

“I might have looked it up when I was planning our route home,” I mumbled, and this time it was me who looked away.

Her laughter rang out loudly in the car and I couldn’t stop myself from bringing my gaze right back to her. “You should have started your proposal with that information. It would have gone a long way towards convincing me you were serious if you’d planned this out before we had sex,” she teased. “Unless this is a plan you use for all the women you save.”

Her voice sounded like she was still joking, but the look in her eyes worried me. “This is the first time I’ve ever planned, or even thought about, my marriage to anyone. It’s you. Only you.”

The breath she must have been holding whooshed out. “Good,” she murmured. “That’s good, but what about identification? I didn’t think to bring any with me for my kidnapping.”

Turning in my seat, I dug through the front, zippered pocket in the suitcase Morgan had packed for me and found the envelope I’d had Hadley’s parents send to his home. I opened it and pulled out her driver’s license, birth certificate and social security card.

“Those are mine!” she gasped, grabbing them from my hand. “How did you get them?”

“I called your parents and told them I might need them as part of your rescue.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Aren’t you the guy who had a fake passport made for me without me even having my photo taken for it?”

“Yes, but this needs to be real. I refuse to leave any doubt as to the legality of our marriage.”

“It sounds like you thought of everything except for what I’ll wear and who will marry us.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket, checked my text messages and found a reply to the message I’d sent right before we landed to an Army buddy who lived in Kentucky. “A friend of mine knows a retired judge who will be happy to officiate our marriage.” I jerked my thumb towards the bag in the back seat. “And I’m pretty sure you’ll find a couple dresses in there for you.”

Her gaze darted to the bag and then she moved her seat back all the way down to lean across it and open the suitcase, then pulled out three dresses, two were white and one was cream. “I can’t believe you managed all of this in the middle of rescuing me from kidnappers in the Nicaraguan jungle. You don’t happen to have a secret superhero identity, do you?”

“That depends.” I waggled my eyebrows at her and lifted a piece of white lingerie out of the suitcase. “If I did, would it improve my odds of seeing you in this?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “I’ve never worn anything like it before.” A growl rumbled up my throat, making her giggle. “But I’m pretty sure you could talk me into it since I’ve done a lot of things with you that are new to me.”

“I want you to do all those things with me.” Especially the ones involving lingerie went without saying.

“Then let’s go cross the biggest one off the list and get hitched.”

How quickly she forgot I might have already knocked her up. It was cute how she thought it was the biggest one, but to me becoming parents was at the top of the list. I couldn’t wait to see her belly round with my child. If she wasn’t pregnant already, I’d have to do my best to correct that once we made it to the safety of my penthouse condo.

***

I
was a man of action, always had been and it had served me well in the past. Things were bad at home when I was eighteen, so I enlisted to find a way out. I’d flourished in the Army, finding my niche and serving my country. When I decided a total separation after ten years was the right plan for me, I held firm during my talks with my career counselor, my supervisor and my OIC. It didn’t matter how often they told me another ten years would buy me a retirement—I had a feeling I wouldn’t make it and would be dead by then. Without a college degree and with a unique set of skills I’d picked up during my time in the military, I knew I needed a plan for success. I reached out to Morgan, and with his help my security business was born. The rest was history, as they say.

Each of those decisions led me to this point, as I stood beside the most gorgeous woman in the world and faced the retired judge who would marry us. My buddy arranged for a couple of witnesses, too. All we’d needed to do was grab a license and show up. I’d made a quick detour to a florist’s shop when I’d noticed Hadley looking at it with longing out the window of the car as we drove past. I was rushing her into this marriage, possibly taking advantage of her when she was vulnerable from the kidnapping and killing a man to keep me safe, but I wanted this ceremony to be as perfect as possible for her because this was the only time she’d get married. It was one and done for her. Once she was legally mine, I wasn’t letting her go.

I listened avidly as she repeated after the judge, promising to share her life with me from today forward. Then it was my turn, and my voice rang clear and true as I spoke the words which were truer than any others I’d ever said.

“I, Brecken Kane, take you, Hadley Gresham, to be my wife. I will share my life with you, building our dreams together, supporting you through times of trouble, and rejoicing with you in times of happiness. I promise to give you all of my respect, love and loyalty through the trials and triumphs of our lives together. This commitment is made in love, kept in faith, and made new every day of our lives.”

By the time I was done, tears streamed down her cheeks. She’d managed to make it through her vows without crying, but hearing mine made her weep.

“Are you exchanging rings?” the judge asked.

Hadley’s fingers trembled in my grasp as she shook her head, her cheeks pinkening. I released one of them to dig in the pocket of the suit pants Morgan had packed for me and retrieved a small black box. Thumbing it open, my gaze darted up to Hadley’s face when she gasped. Her eyes were locked on the ring, a flawless diamond solitaire set in platinum. It was bigger than I’d expected, but that wasn’t a surprise since Morgan had picked it up for me. My best friend wasn’t exactly known for being subtle, something for which I was deeply grateful when I spotted the look of wonder on my precious girl’s face.

“That’s definitely a ring.” The judge’s tone was dry, drawing a giggle from Hadley.

“It looks like my fiancé really did think of everything.”

I stole a quick kiss from her lips before sliding two of the rings from the box, holding them at the tip of her finger and waiting for the judge to continue.

“Your wedding ring is the visible sign of the invisible bond which unites your two hearts in love.”

“A visible sign nobody will be able to miss,” Hadley whispered.

The judge coughed to cover a chuckle at her aside. “Brecken, please place the ring on Hadley’s finger and repeat after me.”

I followed his instruction without glancing down, staring into Hadley’s eyes instead. I wanted her to see how much this moment meant to me.

“Hadley, I give you this ring. Wear it with love and joy. As this ring has no end, my love for you is also forever.”

“Is there a ring in there for you too, Brecken?”

Hadley cocked a brow at me in question before glancing down and catching sight of the matching men’s wedding band. “Yes, there is,” she answered, lifting it off the velvet interior.

“Hadley, place the ring on Brecken’s finger and repeat after me.”

Her voice didn’t tremble as she slid the ring on me. “With this ring, I marry you. Wear this ring forever as a sign of my love.”

“May the wedding rings you exchanged today remind you always that you are surrounded by deep and abiding love.”

I knew what was next and didn’t wait, claiming my wife’s lips in a passionate kiss that had her gasping for air once I was done. She was officially mine, and I had the papers to prove it.

T
he six-hour drive from the little town south of Lexington to Brecken’s home in Chicago flew past as we talked about all the things most couples would discuss during the first week or two of dating. Our childhoods, favorite books and movies, all the little things that made us who we were. We were doing it backwards since we were already married, but it didn’t matter because we’d learned the truly important stuff about each other back in the Nicaraguan jungle. Not only had we made it through hell together, but we’d spent more hours in each other’s company than most couples would after a couple months of dating.

The parking garage he pulled into was dark and kind of scary. I was a little uncertain until the elevator, which required a passcode to use, took us straight to the penthouse and the doors opened to the foyer of a gorgeous apartment. I started to walk out, but Brecken surprised me by sweeping me into his arms.

“I believe it’s customary for the groom to carry the bride over the threshold.” His voice was a whisper of sound, his breath hot against my ear as he carried me into the living room before setting me on my feet.

The design was all black leather and shiny chrome, a bachelor pad fit to grace the pages of a home décor magazine. There was a giant flat screen television on one wall and what looked like a gourmet kitchen across the open space. But the most impressive part of the apartment was the floor to ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan. I was drawn to them as though by an invisible string, placing my palms against the cold glass as I looked outside at the incredible view.

I didn’t hear Brecken approach me from behind, but I felt him when he pressed me against the window. The contrast between the heat of his body and the glass, chilled from the outside temperature, sent a shiver through me. The view blurred as Brecken twisted me in his arms until I was facing him. Then his lips crashed down on mine, our tongues tangling together while his hands made quick work of the removal of our clothes, leaving him completely naked and me standing in nothing but my tiny, white lace panties.